The Paul Effect on California

Thomas D. Elias / Press Telegram | December 10, 2007

It was bound to happen: Some smart Republican campaign strategist was bound to see the opportunities buried in the arcane new rules that party adopted four years ago for its Feb. 5 presidential primary.

Those rules turn California from a bastion of plurality-winner-take-all politics to a place that will essentially run 53 separate little primaries, with the leading GOP vote-getter in each congressional district taking three of the state's 173 Republican convention delegates. Another 11 at-large delegates will go to the statewide vote leader and three more will be unpledged.

So far, the major Republican candidates have not bothered to change tactics to take advantage of the new rules. You won't see former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or onetime Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson or Arizona Sen. John McCain campaigning in West Los Angeles or San Francisco.

They come regularly to those precincts to raise money, but never to plump for votes and delegates.

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And yet, plenty of delegates are available. The securely Democratic districts of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and House committee chairmen like Henry Waxman of West Los Angeles and George Miller of Martinez all have thousands of outnumbered Republican voters empowered under the new GOP rules to elect three delegates per district.

So while the top tier of Republican candidates concentrates on getting out votes statewide, using television and other standard tactics, they're leaving an opening for bottom feeders with low campaign budgets.

Enter Ron Paul, a formerly obscure Texas congressman who has surprised political analysts both with his performance in debates and his ability to draw support and money via the Internet.

Paul opposes continuation of the war in Iraq, but favors using force against the Taliban and terrorists in Afghanistan. He opposes the North American Free Trade Agreement and amnesty of any kind for illegal immigrants. He's even against continuing to give automatic citizenship to the children of the undocumented. He'd like to end the federal income tax and abolish most federal agencies. He opposes the Patriot Act and the federal war on drugs, and he's against abortion rights.

Full article here.

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